Roche Suffers Cancer Treatment Setback

Results of Independent Study Mark Further Setback to Company's Pipeline

By

Andrew Morse

Updated March 3, 2014 8:14 a.m. ET

ZURICH—Roche Holding AG said Monday that an independent committee had recommended the drug giant cancel a late-stage test of a lung cancer treatment because the therapy failed to produce meaningful results, the latest setback to the company's pipeline.

Basel-based Roche said a phase III study of onartuzumab, a drug developed to control certain types of non-small cell lung cancer, lacked "clinically meaningful efficacy." The study was designed to measure whether onartuzumab, used with the oral drug Tarceva,...